Click your heels three times, or donate a few quid – time is running out to save Dorothy’s ruby red shoes. A museum in Washington has launched a Kickstarter campaign to raise $300,000 to rescue the fast deteriorating ‘Wizard of Oz’ slippers using the hashtag #KeepThemRuby.

The slippers, which took Judy Garland’s Dorothy back to Kansas in the 1939 film, are 77 years old and they're showing their age – faded to a sad, dull red. After two days, the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History's campaign has already raised nearly $115,000, which suggests the future is already looking brighter. The money raised will also pay for a state-of-the-art case to preserve the slippers in a displayable condition for generations to come.

The ruby shoes (which were silver in the 1900 novel by L Frank Baum) are actually one of four pairs worn in the film. They were discovered in 1970 at MGM's studios. One pair was stolen from The Judy Garland Museum in Minnesota in 2005 and has never been found. In 2012, Leonardo DiCaprio led a campaign to buy another for the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. Each pair is reported to be worth $3 million.